“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is becoming an autocrat who is reshaping Ukraine into an authoritarian state no different than Russia”, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has shockingly claimed. Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion-turned-politician, took the unprecedented step of publicly attacking Zelensky vehemently for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The mayor sharply criticized President Zelensky for his handling of the war. They have been political foes and such a blistering public condemnation was not expected given the country’s war crisis.

Zelensky is accused of turning into an isolated autocrat and he has clashed with him since the start of the war over the poor state of Kyiv’s emergency shelters. Claimed that they never meet or speak to one another , even though their offices are located only a short distance apart.

The mayor accused Zelensky of:

“The president has an important function today, and we have to support him until the end of the war,” Klitschko said. “But at the end of this war, every politician will pay for his successes or failures.” But despite his grievances, the mayor stopped short of calling for Zelensky’s immediate ouster.

A presidential election was due in March but elections are barred under the martial law introduced when Russia invaded. The Zelensky administration has argued that the vote would not be fair because so many soldiers are at the front and millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee the country. Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, told The Independent that she also disagreed with elections despite Zelensky’s waning........

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